How to Write a Theme Based Essay

Writing a Thesis-Based Paper - English Department

A theme based essay is an essay where you write something based on a theme which can be derived from a novel, drama, short story, song, or any other literary object that has some form, or plot and story in it. The first part in writing a theme based essay is to identify the theme(s) in the literary piece of work you are thinking writing about. Without properly identifying suitable and appropriate themes, you wont be able to write a good theme based essay. So, the first and foremost step in writing a theme based essay starts with identifying the underlying themes that you have read in your literature work.

To begin with, a theme can be as simple as the moral of a fable. However, themes just dont stop with the moral of the story alone. They lie deep within the piece of literature and need to be unearthed, as they are never presented in a direct form. They need to be extracted from the characters, their actions, the settings, the plot and everything else that is present in the novel, story, drama or any other piece of literature. Finding the right theme for the theme based essay is one of the major pre-requisites for writing a theme based essay and students are urged not to overlook this part as incorrect or wrong theme can weaken the essay.

So, we can see that the first and foremost step in writing a theme based essay is to identify the main theme or themes from the title itself. However, just depending upon the title of the literary work is simply not enough for identifying the main themes in the novel or story. You must also read the entire novel/story right from the start till the end a number of times as to acquaint yourself thoroughly about the underlying themes present in it. The following steps will help you in identifying the underlying themes in a better way for your theme based essay: